Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-05-24
VALUE OF REFUSE.
CASH COINED BY THE OUSTMeN
OF NEW YORK CITY.

CASH COINED BY THE oUSTMeN
OF NEW YORK CITY.
The Work at the street Cleaning Dunn pc.
How Ii Is Don--whst Becomes of tho
times Made.
Before the sCOws of the street cleaning
department are sent To sea with their car
goes of street sweepings. ashes garbage
and refuse Of every description, il is neces-
sary TO distribute this mass OF unsayOry
material so that the sCOw will float evenly,
and not dump the load. together with the
Italians who are employed 10 shovel the
refuse, into the water. before the fleet
reaches the boundary line within which
the sanitary laws forbid the dumping of
any material The contractor who does
this work is broad faced, good looking
Italian named CiCerelli, who, when the
contract WAS put up at auction. astOnished
all his competitors and the city authori-
ties rs well 10y bidding S2i5 per week for
the privilege Of sorting over his material.
The contractor has the right TO retain
and sell anything Of value that may be
brought To the docks when the scOwS are
loaded and hn Italian will recognize a
value i'll refuse material which would be
rejected by scavengerS Of any other
nationality. There are sixteen docks along
the water front of the North and East
rivers where the collections OF refuse are
loaded upon the scOws. Cicerelii sublets
the privilege OF sorting this waste at some
OF these docks 10 one or two OF his friends
The men who do the actual work Of
trimming the scows are almost sXclu-
siyely Italians of the lowest and most un-
intelligent class. They are filthy and
dirty in the extreme, and the clothes worn
by them are Ill a great measure cast off
garments, found i'll the refuse as il is
searched over and distributed properly in
the scows by them. These men are paid
small wages by the contractor or sub
contractor, and are supposed 10 turn over
to them all material ON which il is possible
To realize any money. Many small mat
tiers, however, fall TO their lot in the
course of work, and whatever can he Sc
creted or slowed away and taken homo
does not so into the general harvest of the
"boss
The days collection OF salvage goods is
stored ON or near the wharf until il is dis
posed Of TO some speculatOr. Old tin
cans. old shoes, broken umbrellas, bones
clothing coal and other refuse is carefully
laid aside to await a purchaser This
material is generally sold in bulk TO regu-
lar customers, who dispose of their wares
To the best advantage. The bones are
carefully cleaned and sold to sugar re-
fners, who make them into the bone
black used for clarifying sugar Bones Of
larger size are sold 10 manufacturers Of
cutlery, who use them in making handles
for razors and knives. The tin cans, bat
tered and bruised out Of all resemblance
OF the attractive form they have when
they stand III rows on the shelves Of the
grocery stores are sold 10 buttoumakers
They are put III furnace, the iron is
melted out, and then the tin plate is rolled
together and is run beneath heavy dies.
which punch ont the circular bits Of metal
used on the back Of cloth covered buttons
The old clothes, such as are not appro-
priated by the workers in the harvest
Held, are sold To the rag merchats In
the summer time il is customary put
these collections of rags and old cl, hing
In big wooden cage. such as is used for
the drowning Of stray dogs which have
not been reclaimed from the pound, and
TO submerge 1t in the river twenty four
hours before the clothes are sorted and
sold. The broken umbrellas are sold 10
peddlers, who use the ribs
and sticks il making old umbrellas '!as
good as new"
Occasionally articles OF considerable
value and even money are found by the
irimmers. IL may seem impossible that
such a fragile article rs a fine porce-
nj ..,tl1 -.
IF a journey through an ash barrel, be
lo!ted over the rough payements Of this
city in springless cart. be dumped from
he cart distance Of ten or fifteen feet
nto II scow, and Yet escape injury, but the
writer was shown not long since hand
some cream colored vase. about three
inches high, ON the side Of which was
lainted Il spray Of forget me nots, which
lad been dug out from among the rub
Iish on one Of the scows of The de part
neut.
Very frequently the men find silver
poons and forks while sorting over this
efuse. These they sell TO second hand
lealers in silver, but sometimes they keep
hem for their own Use There is one
Italian working on one of the dumps on
he east side Of the city who lives with his
amily, consisting of wife and eight
hlldren, in two rooms in a rear tenement
n the Bend in Mulberry street, who has
us table set with silver forks and spoons.
le has collected fifteen spoons and eleven
arks, all of different patterns. These arti-
les get into the garbage pail by the care
essness OF servants, and even the rag
ickers avoid these pals, and will not
earch through them for articles of value
very day some one on every dump in the
lty will find one or more coins These
ever reach the contractors, but are
ocketed by the finders.-New York Post